Positives:
Excellent value for money.
Housekeeping superb.
Friendly bar staff.
Very comfortable beds.
Some lovely bars on deck 8 and nice general restaurant (Thalassa) on deck 7
Negatives:
General issue onboard with regards to hygiene, half of hand sanitizers consistently empty, concerning when there was plenty of coughing and sneezing onboard.
Problem with A/C in room ...
Viking and their entire staff, from booking, to choosing excursions far exceeded our expectations. ‘My Viking’ app creates a nearly seamless way to handle all of our details. The cruise itself was a joy from start to finish with every detail handled. I am thrilled to highly recommend Viking to everyone. Our cabin was spacious and provided everything you could possibly want.
One of the ...
We traveled via Viking Air Business Class going and Premium Economy upon return, arranging our hotel in Istanbul for three days before embarkation and doing the post-cruise extension in Athens upon disembarkation. We traveled as three seniors.
Travel to and from the cruise was arranged through Viking Air months before the cruise with recurrent notices of dates times, airline booking codes, and ...
I thought given reviews that Viking would give us a superior experience, not a superior attitude. I erred.
Problems began, and ended, with Viking Air. We spent over $12,000 on air alone to get .... not a ticket. Viking and Viking Air were unable to fix the problem despite our time on the phone with both AND assurances that they had. So, our trip started with the customer service agent ...
TLDR: This cruise was amazing and we're so glad we did it!
My husband and I had never really traveled internationally together, and never on a cruise. However, we really liked the idea of seeing a lot of places without having to deal with making all the arrangements ourselves, so we thought we'd give cruising a try. We are a little younger than the usual Viking cruiser (39/43), but we decided ...
We're seasoned cruisers with over 30 cruises on most of the major cruiselines but not Oceania. We went on 3 Oceania Riviera cruises in 2023, Sep/Oct from Amsterdam to Barcelona and then back to back cruises in Nov/Dec from Barcelona to Istanbul and then Istanbul to Dubai. My review is on all 3 cruises on the same ship.
We booked the Holyland & Middle East cruise the first day it was available ...
So so incredibly disappointed with Oceania. Absolutely no guest/customer service. Have raised all issues with onboard team, Oceania guest relations and still no communication back. This cruise is going no where, no ports now for 9 days, even restaurants closed on some nights so no choice and tonight all specialty restaurants closed and only Grand Dining and Terrace cafe open. As to onboard ...
NCL HORROR STORY
Choose any other cruise line than NCL, what you think you are saving you will pay in disappointment. I booked a mid-east cruise in Aug.‘23 and was a prisoner on-board NCL Norwegian Dawn for 10 days after they cancelled five of eight featured/ advertised ports because of war (understandable) and because four Arab ports barred American ship entry (according to ship grape-vine). ...
NCL Dawn Cruise from Istanbul to Dubai Nov 24 to Dec 13
The cruise changed a number of times. This was explained as a result of the conflict in Palestine. However, stops in Egypt were removed with others added. Sea days were also added. A credit of $200 for the stateroom was provided for the entire trip. No explanation of the compensation for the missed ports, additional sea days, and reduction ...
This was our first trip on Norwegian Gem, but not first on NCL. We booked for the itinerary which originally included Turkey, Israel, Greece, Egypt, Sicily and Italy (Naples and Rome). Sadly, we were unable to visit Israel due to war with Hamas. We were pleased with the substitutions of Crete and Cyprus, having never visited either island before.
Ship and crew: We've been on several ...